Concept Graphics are blocks placed in your drawing that relate to an extremely diagrammatic, conceptual level of site planning. These graphics are used for creating schematic designs, and are representative of objects or ideas. They include Viewpoints, Custom Nodes, and Custom Lines.

Concept Graphics should only be placed in Model Space. When placed in Paper Space, they won't scale correctly.

3. Buttons to add a New Concept Graphic to the selected category, Edit or Delete a selected Concept Graphic, and Import Concept Graphics from another project

4. Buttons to Place a selected Concept Graphic into a drawing and generate a Concept Graphics Schedule

Viewpoint

A Viewpoint graphic will typically reference a specific view of the project site. However, a Viewpoint can also serve a variety of other purposes, where you reference a notation relating to a direction.

Select the Viewpoint option.

Click New to create your new Viewpoint.

The New Concept Item dialog box will open, allowing you to fill in information about your Viewpoint.

1. The Title of what your Viewpoint represents

2. If you want, add a Note to describe the Viewpoint.

3. The Number that will appear in the Viewpoint. This number is editable, but can consist of no more than two characters.

When you click Photo, you'll navigate to where the photo is stored on your computer.

The photo will need to be on a mapped letter drive, such as your server, a shared online folder, or even the C: drive on your computer.

When you select the photo, you'll see a thumbnail preview for it within the Symbol location.

Note:

Viewpoint doesn't always mean the viewing of something, but might also relate to where a usage might want to be, or a usage to avoid. A photo of a particular view of the site is simply a logical use for a Viewpoint.

If you assign photos to a Viewpoint, make sure the photo is in a stable file location. If you move the photo to a different directory on your computer, the link will be lost.

You don't necessarily need to fill in the Title and Notes of a viewing. The Viewpoint might simply consist of a number of view callouts relating to a photo montage on this or another sheet.

Concept Nodes

A Concept Node is a focal point or important usage. Examples might include a fountain plaza, a kiosk, a focal seating area, or simply a focal change of direction in a path system.

Select the Nodes option in the Concept Graphics dialog box.

Click New to create your new Concept Node.

You'll now see a dialog box with a number of graphic options for the Node you're adding.

Select a Node style, and click OK.

Did you know that Concept Nodes are completely customizable? You can find the source files in the folder LandFX\Blocks\Graphics\Concept\Nodes. For instructions on editing these Node source files, please see our Customize Concept Graphics page.

Do you see blank rectangles rather than slides in this dialog box? Or are the slides of poor quality? If so, here's the fix.

The New Concept Item dialog box will open, allowing you to fill in information about your Node.

1. The Title of the node

2. If you want, add a Note to describe what the node represents.

3. A preview of the symbol you assigned to this node

4. The color given to the node. When you first create the node, the color is a default gray. Click the Color box to assign a new color to the node.

True Color offers millions of color options. However, these colors may vary in appearance from one computer monitor to another. This seems to be the most common type of color selection.

Color Books are generally a graphic art standard of Pantone color books. You would most likely use one of the printed Pantone color books in selecting this color to ensure its output would be exactly as you anticipate.

DO NOT select a color from the AutoCAD Index Color tab.

The AutoCAD Index Color palette is generally reserved for color-dependent plot styles, and it offers only 255 color options.

Once you select a color, it will show up in the Color area.

Concept Lines

A Concept Line is typically used to represent a linear usage such as pedestrian or vehicular travel. It can also represent an area to be screened or define the boundary of a usage area.

To add a Concept Line, select the Lines option in the Concept Graphics dialog box.

Click New to create your new Concept Line.

You'll now see a dialog box with a number of graphic options for the Concept Line you're adding.

Select a line style, and click OK.

Did you know that Concept Lines are completely customizable? You can find the source files in the folder LandFX\Blocks\Graphics\Concept\Lines. For instructions on editing these Concept Line source files, please see our Customize Concept Graphics page.

Do you see blank rectangles rather than slides in this dialog box? Or are the slides of poor quality, as pictured below?

True Color offers millions of color options. However, these colors may vary in appearance from one computer monitor to another. This seems to be the most common type of color selection.

Color Books are generally a graphic art standard of Pantone color books. You would most likely use one of the printed Pantone color books in selecting this color to ensure its output would be exactly as you anticipate.

DO NOT select a color from the AutoCAD Index Color tab.

The AutoCAD Index Color palette is generally reserved for color-dependent plot styles, and it offers only 255 color options.

Once you select a color, it will show up in the Color area.

Note: You'll notice that Concept Lines have a gradient rather than a solid color. We don't have anything built into the system to turn off the gradient, as we do with the Site and Zoning areas. However, you can change a gradient fill to a standard solid fill using the AutoCAD Block Editor.

Placing Concept Graphics

Placing a Concept Viewpoint or Node

In the Concept Graphics dialog box, select the Viewpoint or Nodes option.

Highlight the graphic you want to place. Then click Place.

In Model Space, click where you want to place the Viewpoint or Node.

If placing a Viewpoint, move the cursor until the Viewpoint is pointing in your desired direction. Click to set the direction.

The Viewpoint will be placed with the number assigned to it, as pictured to the right.

If placing a Node, just click to place it.

The image to the left shows an example Concept Node placed in a drawing.

Placing a Concept Line

Select the Lines option in the Concept Graphics dialog box, then highlight the Line item you want to place.

Click Place to place the Concept Line.

Click to begin your line. Click again to set the width of your line segments.

Move your mouse to begin drawing the line.

When you click to draw the first line segment, you can change direction of the line or draw an arc. The Command line will prompt: Next point, [Arc], <done>.

For an arc, type A to start an arc at the point where you clicked. The Command line will prompt you to set the Arc midpoint.

Click to set the midpoint of the arc, then click again to place the arc.

If you want another arc, repeat the arc process.

After drawing a line segment, you'll always revert automatically to drawing a “line” unless you type A to draw an arc.

In our example, we've drawn a short line segment extending upward to end our Concept Line.

Right-click or press Enter to end the command.

You'll now see the Concept Arrows dialog box, where you can select an arrow for the ends of your line.

Click an arrow style to select it, then click OK to place the arrows.

You can also click Cancel to place the line without arrows.

If you only want an arrow on one end, select an arrow style and then use the Block Editor to edit the resulting Concept Line block to delete one arrow manually. Don't forget to save your changes. Block Editor instructions >

If you select an arrow style, arrows of that style will be placed at each end of the line.

The resulting line is one large block. If you make a mistake, delete the line and redraw it.

When the item is printed, the color will be indicated as Color, and the AutoCAD Index Colors used on the site will be black.

Editing Concept Graphics

To edit a Concept Graphic from the Concept Manager, select it and click Edit.

You can also use our Block Data tool to select a Concept Graphic you've already placed in your drawing. This tool opens a pickbox, which you can use to select the object in your drawing you want to edit.

The Edit Concept Item dialog box will open.

Here, you can make edits to the selecte graphic's title, note, or number, or select a new symbol or photo for it.

Placing a Concept Graphics Schedule

To place a schedule of all Concept Graphics you've used in your design, click the Schedule button in the Concept Manager.

You can then click to place the schedule.

We've engineered the Concept Graphics Schedule to include the photos you've assigned to each of your Concept Graphics.

Placing a Photo Callout

Like other photo callouts, photos associated with Concept Graphics need to be placed in Paper Space.

To place a photo associated with a Concept Graphic, go to the layout (Paper Space) tab where you plan to place the photo.

You'll need a viewport of the site where you can see the Concept Graphics you've placed. Follow our instructions to lock the viewport.

If the layout tab doesn't require a viewport of the site, make a temporary one off to the side. Double-click within the viewport to work within that viewport area, or what is called “floating Model Space.”

Place your photo using our Photo Callout tool. You can access Photo Callout using one of the following methods:

F/X Site ribbon, Photo Callout flyout

F/X Planting pull-down menu

Plant Label toolbar

or by typing FX_PlantPhotoCallout in the Command line

Still in your layout tab, click the Concept Viewport, Node, or Line you'd like to call out with a photo.

You'll see a preview of the photo, as pictured to the right.

Click OK to accept the photo, or click Browse to browse to a new photo.

Review the caption to be placed beneath the photo callout.

You can also choose whether to include a drop shadow with your photo callout.

Click OK to place the photo.

You'll be brought back to Paper Space from the floating Model Space. Click to place the photo, then drag the mouse to size it. If you're calling out a Node or a Line, you'll be prompted to place a callout leader.

If you're calling out a Viewpoint, you'll see a circle containing the Viewpoint number next to the photo caption.

Viewpoint photo callouts do not have leaders.

Importing Concept Graphics from a Template or Project

If you find yourself adding the same Concept Graphics to multiple projects, we recommend setting up a project template and then adding your commonly used Concept Graphics to that template. You can then import them into a new project from that template. This practice can save you immeasurable amounts of time, considering all the data you need to fill out for each Concept Graphic you create. With templates, you only need to add and configure your Concept Graphics once, then import them, along with all attached data, into the present project.

The following steps also apply to importing Concept Graphics from regular Land F/X projects. However, we recommend setting up and importing from a template – mainly because templates are set up to be read-only. This means you can rest assured that the data in your templates hasn't changed when you import your Concept Graphics into a project.

To import Concept Graphics into the current project, select a category in the Concept Graphics Manager.

Then click Import.

Note: You'll need to repeat these steps for each category of Concept Graphics you want to import.

The Select Project dialog box will open.

Select the template that includes the Concept Graphics you want to import.

Then click OK.

Select all the graphics from the selected category that you want to import from the selected project or template.

You can hold down the CTRL key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac) to select multiple graphics at a time.

Click Add to Project to add them to the current project.

The Concept Graphics Manager will now include the Concept Graphics you've imported. Those graphics, and all their data, are now added to your project, and you can place them as needed.

Repeat these steps for each Concept Graphics category you want to import.

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